Making Talent Reviews more effective

As an HR Business Partner, you need to know where the pipeline of future talent is going to come from within your area of the company.

You'll probably be asking, or needing to know the answers to, the following questions:

Do you have sufficient internal talent to drive the future growth of the business, as set out in your strategy?

What are the gaps between the resources you have and what the company will need in the next 2-5 years?

What are managers doing to grow and develop the people in their teams?

Are there any critical roles or posts which do not have suitable successors and where your organisation is at risk?

What do you need to do or put in place to mitigate against these risks, and ensure the sustained growth and success of your part of the business?

Your talent reviews sessions should help you to answer these questions.

Talent Review Scenario 1You are an ambitious, motivated person and you want to advance your career as far as you possibly can. You work hard and are keen to show that you’re a valuable asset to the company. Your skills and experience befit a role which is far beyond the requirements of the post you currently hold; you took an entry level job with the company because of the wider opportunities the business can offer. Whilst you consistently exceed your objectives, you get the feeling that your line manager doesn’t always recognise your worth, and you don’t always see eye to eye. But you know that the organisation has a talent review process through which high potential can be spotted and promoted to positions where they can really add value so you’re willing to stick with your current job for now...

Talent Review Scenario 2You manage a large team in a growing area of the business. You know your team pretty well and they’re all good people; some have clearly reached their ceiling but are happy to remain the solid bedrock of the Division, but others show potential far beyond their current role and you recognise that you can’t keep all of them in the long-term. It is likely that the company will get the most value from them - and that they are more likely to resist the amorous advances of your competitors - if they are given opportunities to grow, develop and ascend the ranks: this is likely to mean that they will not remain in your part of the business, but that’s what good management is all about. It can be as difficult to manage these ‘stars’ as it is to deal with the underperformers, but the organisation has the talent review process in place so this will give you the opportunity to ensure that there are growth opportunities either within your own area , or across the organisation for them. You are looking forward to seeing their careers accelerate...

Talent reviews are an essential element of talent management, since they are the organisation's opportunity to identify and make best use of rising stars, but they are also often poorly managed or misused. In theory, talent reviews should form an integral part of the people strategy and should enable the company to make best use of its assets.

In reality, the process is fraught with difficulties and rarely fulfils the needs and expectations of the key stakeholders, as described above.